Category: Climate Basics

Excerpt from the Southwest Climate Change Network, written by Zack Guido, University of Arizona

Radiative forcing measures the influence that climate-altering factors have on the energy balance of the Earth. Examples of factors that can alter the Earth’s energy balance include atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, aerosols from volcanoes and air pollution, and the amount of solar radiation delivered to the Earth by the Sun.

In a state of equilibrium, solar radiation entering the atmosphere equals the radiation that …

Excerpt from the Southwest Climate Change Network, written by Zack Guido, University of Arizona

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor, are naturally part of the Earth’s atmosphere. These gases tap heat from the sun’s radiation in the atmosphere and act as powerful amplifiers of temperature. The natural greenhouse gas effect (Figure 1) helps to elevate the average temperature in the lower atmosphere to a comfortable 60 degrees F. Without GHGs, average atmosphere temperatures would …

Excerpt from the Southwest Climate Change Network, written by Zack Guido, University of Arizona

Extreme events, such as floods, heat waves, and hurricanes, are rare weather occurrences that often cause the greatest damage to society. In the yearly distribution of rainfall, for example, extreme precipitation events that cause flooding occur less frequently than the “average” rainfall events, but the economic toll of floods is many times greater.

Any climate variable can be characterized by a probability distribution, which conveys …

Excerpt from the Southwest Climate Change Network, written by Zack Guido, University of Arizona

The climate system is dynamic and complex. While weather conditionschange over short periods of time, such as when anvil-shaped clouds burst in the late afternoon during monsoon season, climate describes average conditions over longer intervals. Understanding this distinction and other basic concepts such as radiative forcing and the enhanced greenhouse gas effect can clarify how the climate is changing and how humans have contributed to …

Weather and climate are often confused. In this article, we explore how climate and weather are different from and related to each other.

Excerpt from the Southwest Climate Change Network, written by Zack Guido, University of Arizona

Figure 1. As an example of climate, thunderstorms usually occur during the summer months in the southwestern United States, whereas each individual storm represents an example of weather. Photo by Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service via forestryimages.com

Do you trust your local …

Climate naturally varies over a variety of different scales. Learn some of the aspects that influence climate variation here.

Excerpt from the Southwest Climate Change Network, written by Zack Guido, University of Arizona

Figure 1. Climate naturally varies on a number of different scales (e.g., temperature, precipitation, geographically). Such changes influence species’ distributions, phenology, and migration patterns in every ecosystem. Photo courtesy of Chris Schnepf, University of Idaho.

The climate varies naturally from one year to the next. Climate …